Wounds by Alton Gansky

MY REVIEW

I do recommend this book, although only to adult readers. It is not reading for anyone with a faint heart or who is squeamish. The story is about another broken, driven, crusty female cop, her demons, and how she deals with them while tracking down a particularly vicious and sadistic serial killer.

My attention was riveted from the first page. The story pace lagged a bit around the middle and picked up again about 3/4 of the way. I think Mark Bertrand does a much better job at incorporating the personal life and the mystery unraveling into a seamless storyline, however, Gansky does a fine job with story flow, and there is nothing that is a story flow dam such as a character doing something or saying something uncharacteristic. It is a skillfully woven story, and what I liked the best is the reader finds out as soon as the detectives all the clues, forensics, and particulars. Nothing is held back for some climatic finish. I also liked the way Gansky makes you think  and ponder various solutions as the story unfolds. Although, he's no Ellery Queen or Agatha Christie, he is a good story teller. What more can a mystery lover ask for?  

[Side note: Why do men (and women) write stories about women who are police or lawyers or doctors or some other profession that is comprised mostly by men and think they must strip all the girly and feminine attributes off the heroine? I've never understood that. Why can't a woman be a woman these days? What is so awful about femininity?]

Another question is why do men think they can truly get inside the head of a woman character well enough to make the woman the main character? Don't let the back jacket blurb fool you, the story isn't about Dr. Ellis Poe as much as it is about Carmin Rainmondi. But Gansky does a fairly good job of weaving the two stories together. [The previous statement is purposely obscure enough not to give away the ending.] Admittedly, there are many male authors who do a fairly good job of this and Alton Gansky does do a fairly good job at it. Carmen Rainmondi is a skillfully developed main character, and has all her flaws clearly outlined.

I give this novel 4 of 5 stars.

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Wounds B&H Books (May 1, 2013) by Alton Gansky

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Alton L. Gansky is the author of 24 novels and 8 nonfiction works, as well as principle writer of 9 novels and 2 nonfiction books. He has been a Christie Award finalist (A Ship Possessed) and an Angel Award winner (Terminal Justice) and recently was award the ACFW award for best suspense/thriller for his work on Fallen Angel. He holds a BA and MA in biblical studies and Lit.D. He lives in central California with his wife. In addition to his own writing, Alton Gansky has consulted and provided editing/ writing services to several CBA publishers and written copy, video scripts, and other works for the general business market. Through Gansky.Communications he has consulted with publishers and agents, as well as provided editing services. He is “the go to guy” for co-writing having been selected by Penguin, Waterbrook, Broadman Holman, and other publishers to work with their top tier authors. Gansky is in frequent demand at writer’s conferences having taught and keynoted in California, Arizona, New Mexico, North Carolina, Delaware, Washington, and Canada. He has also been guest lecturer on suspense writing at Taylor University in Indiana.


ABOUT THE BOOK

A man’s lifeless body is found in the fresh soil of San Diego’s botanical garden. Cause of death is asphyxiation, an easy call for the medical examiner. More mysterious, however, are the tiny drops of blood on the victim’s skin, resulting from hundreds of punctures. A rabbi leaving his house for work expects a regular day at the synagogue. That quickly changes when he discovers a dead man on his front lawn, clearly beaten to death. Motorcycle riders racing along the empty streets of an abandoned military base stumble across another man’s corpse, its skin revealing long, red-purple marks of a thrashing given with wood dowels. The numbers mount. Each week another victim and another mysterious clue in a game of mass murder the police don’t want to lose. The solution rests with Dr. Ellis Poe, a religious professor who only wishes to be left alone with his books and classes. But evil must be faced, and the choice is no longer his own.

If you would like to read the first chapter of Wounds, go HERE.